In today's study we move on to Chapter Four and the subject of the sin offering. This is a type of offering that would be made when a person sinned in ignorance and realized later that he or she was in the wrong.
This is not a deliberate sin. It's not an occasion where a person knows and thinks about the laws and commandments of the Lord but decides to break them anyway. This is the kind of sin where a person may realize later, "I shouldn't have done or said that." Or perhaps the person thought he was doing right at the time, because humanly speaking it looked like the proper course of action, but he or she didn't know there was a law or commandment specifically forbidding this course of action. Upon learning that there was, the person would become aware of guilt, would repent, and would bring the offering.
I'm reminded of what King David said in one of his psalms to the Lord. He was extolling the goodness of the Lord's laws and commandments and said of them, "By them Your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward," and then he added, "But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults." (Psalm 19:11-12) David was very familiar with the word of God and yet he knew that he wasn't capable of applying it to his life every minute of every day. He knew he was in danger of sinning and not realizing it. We can relate to what David was saying. Sometimes we go about our day and this or that wrong thought may pop into our heads or we may have an impatient attitude over a delay or we may use a tone of voice that doesn't reflect who we are in Christ. At night when we lie down to sleep, are we even able to recall every incident that day where we weren't perfectly in line with what the Lord says? It may not strike us until days later that we said or did something ungodly and at that point we make the "sin offering" of repentant prayer to our God. But in the days before Christ, in the days of Moses which we are studying, a person also had to bring a sin offering to the tabernacle.
We begin Chapter Four by looking at what a priest had to do when he realized he'd sinned. "The Lord said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites: When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord's commands---If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the Lord a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed. He is to present the bull at the entrance to the tent of meeting before the Lord. He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it there before the Lord." (Leviticus 4:1-4) You know by now from studying various sacrifices that the person placed his hand upon the animal's head to signify the symbolic transference of his sin to the animal.
The priests had an enormous responsibility to live godly lives in the sight of the people. This is why the Lord says if an anointed priest sins he brings guilt on the people. The actions of the priests affect everyone in the camp because the Israelites are looking to the priests for an example of godly living. If the priests begin to go astray they will influence others to do the same. People will say, "Well, if Aaron and his sons can do this thing, so can I. It must be okay if a priest is doing it."
"Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull's blood and carry it into the tent of meeting. He is to dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the Lord, in front of the curtain of the sanctuary. The priest shall then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the Lord in the tent of meeting. The rest of the bull's blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the tent of meeting." (Leviticus 4:5-7) The priest doesn't make his sin offering in secret. The people don't expect a priest to be perfect but when a priest messes up he has a duty to show that he is sorry for his mistake. Whether the sin he has become aware of is private or is publicly known, he sets an example for everyone in the camp by acknowledging his error and bringing to the Lord an offering for his sin. In our day a situation like this might involve a pastor or religious leader making a public apology to the congregation for some well-known mistake he's made. Or if he hurt the feelings of someone in a more private setting he can go to that person and tell them he's sorry. In our day we don't expect our religious leaders to be perfect either, but we do expect them to acknowledge and repent of any mistakes of which they become aware. This is respectable and godly behavior. This sets an example for the rest of us to live by.
"He shall remove all the fat from the bull of the sin offering---all the fat that is connected to the internal organs, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys---just as the fat is removed from the ox sacrificed as a fellowship offering. Then the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering." (Leviticus 4:8-10) These parts, considered the most valuable by ancient people, were offered up wholly to the Lord. You'll recall from yesterday's passage that the people are forever forbidden to eat fat in their meals. As we discussed yesterday, it's not possible to remove every smidgen of fat from the meat that's eaten, but the people were intended to trim it off as much as possible. The fat and the blood were considered holy to the Lord; they were never to be treated as common and unimportant enough to be eaten.
Nothing can be kept from the bull used for the sin offering. "But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, as well as the head and the legs, the internal organs and the intestines---that is, all the rest of the bull---he must take outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean, where the ashes are thrown, and burn i there in a wood fire on the ash heap." (Leviticus 4:11-12) In some types of sacrifices we've seen the people removing the hide but in the case of the sin offering even the hide must be discarded. Hides were very useful and the people needed hides for various things, but because this hide is part of a sin offering it is considered "worthless" just like sin. The meat isn't eaten by the people either since it is part of a sin offering. Sin is worthless to God. Sin is worthless to man. It can never add any value to man's life or to his eternal soul, so by taking these leftover parts of the bull outside the camp the priest is symbolically removing the sin from the camp.
The author of the book of Hebrews, who is believed to be the Apostle Paul, takes our passage today and applies it to the death of Christ who gave His life on a cross outside the gates of Jerusalem. "The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood." (Hebrews 13:11-12) Jesus gave Himself as a sin offering----not for sins of His own, for He was sinless---but for the sins of mankind. The Bible is not saying that the body of this sin offering was worthless (Christ's body) but that in order to fulfill the law found here in Leviticus 4 He had to die and be buried outside the camp (outside the gates of the holy city of Jerusalem). Just as the body of the bull was taken outside the camp, Christ's body also was taken outside the camp. But unlike the sin offering of the bull that had to be repeated time and time again, the sin offering Christ made only had to be done once. And unlike the body of the bull that was burned so that it would not decay, there was no danger of the body of Christ decaying but instead He rose to life again in an eternal, immortal human body never to die again. This is the proof we have that Christ's sacrifice on our behalf was acceptable to God. This is the proof we need that Christ's sacrifice is forever able to make righteous those who come to Him in faith. Because this sacrifice and our faith are all that's needed, we will stand before our holy God and Judge someday and be declared not guilty in His holy court of law.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Amen!
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